Tourist Accommodation: Small Companies Face Dim Prospects

Xavier Niel, division Services, Insee

While the number of hotels is falling, the number of campsites and other types of
tourist accommodation (holiday apartments, bed and breakfasts, etc.) is steadily increasing.
The structure of tourist facilities is changing: the smallest establishments are gradually
disappearing. Hotels with less than ten employees represented 42% of the total in
2006, compared with 51% in 1993. The same is true for campsites, where very small
campsites are no longer the dominant model. Employment in other kinds of tourist accommodation
is no longer negligible, as it was in 1993: climbing from 9,500 in 1993 to 34,300
in 2006, mainly due to very large companies. Hotels definitely became less profitable
after the tourism crisis in 2001. This deterioration seemed to halt in 2006, but only
for the largest establishments.